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OWC processor upgrade program for '09 / '10 systems

oilfighter said:
was that just a straight up swapping of the CPU? Was it difficult? Tutorial? That price of OWC shattered my dream of buying a base quad, and upgrading to hex a year down the road.
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Hi Oil,

Yes, very simple, on the single quad core that is. Just need to get the right torx driver and some Arctic Silver and you're good to go.
 
Honumaui said:
I wonder what they are going to do with the extra CPU ? will your old become someones new ?
not accusing them just curious 🙂

as a business owner 🙂 I say more power to them though for offering up something that might be a niche !!!!!
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That is a very good question.
 
$1200 to upgrade my 2.66 to 3.33Ghz, which in UK money is £900 and for £1200 I can upgrade to a 3.33Ghz 6-core 2010.

I think I'll save my money 😛
 
have to say I am curious about the niche ?

many people who will do this voiding the warranty and trying to make things go faster might do it themselves ?

the other side of people like in my industry of photography wont risk it and wont void the warranty ? they will just buy the model they need from the get go ?

if the target was say updating a Mac Pro 1,1 somehow I can see more takers ?

will be interesting to watch 🙂 to bad their will be no way to know the outcome ! this is like seeing a fall preview for a cool show then they cancel it and you never know the outcome 😉
 
Honumaui said:
have to say I am curious about the niche ?

many people who will do this voiding the warranty and trying to make things go faster might do it themselves ?
Click to expand...

I'd say it's totally not worth it for the lidded CPUs on the 4-core Mac Pros. Those are fairly easy to swap out yourself, with fewer risks in general thanks to its much friendlier setup.

The 8-cores, however, are riskier business (see the AnandTech article on the subject), so I can see the advantage there. However it seems like OWC may be pricing themselves out of the market based on the costs listed for the single-CPU units on their website right now.
 
Honumaui said:
have to say I am curious about the niche ?

many people who will do this voiding the warranty and trying to make things go faster might do it themselves ?

the other side of people like in my industry of photography wont risk it and wont void the warranty ? they will just buy the model they need from the get go ?

if the target was say updating a Mac Pro 1,1 somehow I can see more takers ?

will be interesting to watch 🙂 to bad their will be no way to know the outcome ! this is like seeing a fall preview for a cool show then they cancel it and you never know the outcome 😉
Click to expand...

I purchased a 2010 a few days ago. I grabbed the 2.8 quad. I will add applecare and the day apple care runs out I will decide if I want to upgrade cpu. I see a niche for a buyer of a 2009 used machine that is out of warranty.
 
If you actually read what it says at the OWC site, you cannot upgrade a 2009 Mac Pro to a 6 or 12 core. 2009 Pros are limited to 4-core and 8-core upgrades only. Upgrading a 2009 Quad to an 8-core 3.33 GHz will cost over $4,200 according to their configuration options! No 6-core or 12-core options for 2009 models, unfortunately.
 
I still have a copy of Apple stores 2009 Quad prices, the upgrade from 2.66 to 3.33 GHz Quad was around $1,400 in Japan. So assuming you have the low end Quad it is just a little more than that to upgrade, around $1,500. It may not be a great deal right now, but if they still offer this a year and half from now, some people may jump on it.

With the dollars devaluation as compared with Yen it would cost me the same as people who live in the states to upgrade my low end 2009 Quad. But, I only thought about it for a few seconds, a little too expensive for me, besides I like new with all the bells and whistles that go with that. (USB 3, Sandy Bridge, a year and half from now, who knows what we will have, the middle of 2012, Beam me down.)
 
It's very easy to upgrade the CPU in the 2009 Quad. You can buy the retail CPU w/ lid and literally just swap them out. This is how I upgraded my 2009 Quad 2.6 GHz to a 3.33 GHz months before Apple listed that as an upgrade option. The new CPU cost $1,100 at the time, but I got back $250 when I sold my 2.6 GHz CPU on eBay, so the net cost of the upgrade was around $850 for an almost 30% improvement in performance. It was worth it for me. OWC is charging quite a bit more for this same upgrade.

The 2010 models are only marginally better than the 2009s, and 90% of the improvement comes from new 6-core and 12-core CPU options. I think we will see an entirely new architecture next year, and that will be worth waiting for. Those with 2009 Mac Pros have very little reason to upgrade.
 
What do you think about this '09 upgrade: 2x26 -> 3.33 quad for less 1000$

It could be interesting, if someone looking for more performance, not for 3D or virtualization of course, but in case of photo or video work, what do you think ?
 
matryxyan said:
What do you think about this '09 upgrade: 2x26 -> 3.33 quad for less 1000$

It could be interesting, if someone looking for more performance, not for 3D or virtualization of course, but in case of photo or video work, what do you think ?
Click to expand...

First you purchased the octad which was considerably more than the quad, than you pay again for a downgrade?

What makes it an even worse deal is that OWC keeps your dual CPU tray plus the CPUs (I recall that being stated on the site).

If you wanna do such an "upgrade", you can sell your current 5520s, buy the 3.33GHz quad and swap the dual CPU daughterboard for a single. That should cost close to nothing!
 
I live in Europe and the shipping costs with these upgrades are 200 dollar, which is expensive. And I have to ship my processor to them too. I think I'd be better off with selling my MacPro 2.66 and buy a 6-core 3,66 in the future.
 
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